Portugal Drug Decriminalization Laws Show Positive Results

AFP:

LISBON — Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal's decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

"There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal," said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.

Read the whole story: AFP

Comments

[Allyatx]

01:00 PM on 07/04/2011

Here we are the USA and I thought we supposed to be the leaders and come up with innovative stuff like this.

[ThinkingPatriot]

12:55 PM on 07/04/2011

The 800lb gorilla in the room is that the vast majority of drug users don't have a problem and don't need "treatment" or "reeducation." If it were proposed that alcohol and tobacco were treated the same way, it would widely be seen as absurd. Scotch

[leftyirishwoman]

12:35 PM on 07/04/2011

Please read the entire source article, because in addition to decriminalizing drugs, Portugal also treated addicts. There are a number of questions which I would love to have answered.

What is the impact on the use of legal drug use in Portugal, such as alcohol and nicotine?

When did Portugal start a comprehensive Education Program on all drugs, including the distinction between use and abuse (versus the failed abstinence only approach)?

How long has Portugal had a comprehensive health care program?

What are the goals of Portugal's substance abuse program?

How has Portugal cut the Gordian Knot of environment, poverty, and drug use? Aside from everything described in the article and my above questions.

It is great to hear about a success in drug treatment. Please share the details. The American story is all about denying the economic realities of drug use, in which the American demand for drugs causes so much societal misery while being supplied, plus the profit motives of the Pharmaceutical, Alcohol, Military, Security, and Prison Industries.

This is one thing I do agree with Ron Paul; of course, he learned it back in medical school.

[fumes]

06:34 PM on 07/04/2011

Ron Paul is looking better and better..

the more and more that ''our'' government lies to us!

remove pot from it's unlawful place at Schedule One..

and the War On Pot becomes immediately MOOT:

Schedule I,
n a category of drugs not considered legitimate for medical use. Included are heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and marijuana.
Schedule II,
n a category of drugs considered to have a strong potential for abuse or addiction but that also have legitimate medical use. Included are opium, morphine, and cocaine.
Schedule III,
n a category of drugs that have less potential for abuse or addiction than Schedule I or II drugs and have a useful medical purpose. Included are short-acting barbiturates and amphetamines.
Schedule IV,
n a medically useful category of drugs that have less potential for abuse or addiction than those of Schedules I, II, and III. Included are diazepam and chloral hydrate.
Schedule V,
n a medically useful catiegory of drugs that have less potential for abuse or addiction than those of Schedules I through IV. Included are antidiarrheals and antitussives with opioid derivatives.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Schedule+I+drug

[iblogleft]

12:24 PM on 07/04/2011

But, but what would the profiteers do? Get a real job? I doubt it.

Hey, they could go into the health insurance business... Plenty of misery to profit on there.

[bespoken]

12:17 PM on 07/04/2011

There are far too many interests in the US that profit from the "war on drugs" for this to ever happen here. What would all those privately run penitentiaries do for money? What about the DEA? Or law enforcement agencies across the country?

[Oceras]

12:10 PM on 07/04/2011

The "War on Drugs" is a complete misnomer. There are no armies of Cannabis sativa carrying AK-47's and grenade launchers. The "War on Drugs" is, in reality, a 'War on People' and a 'War on Common Sense'.

The best argument the anti's can make is that legalizing drugs will result in a huge upsurge of use among children. Such people cover their eyes and do not see that drugs are already cheap and extremely easy to obtain for anyone with the will. It's the Emperor's New Clothes of drug policy.

Portugal puts the lie to the argument against legalization. Drug use and crime drops. There is no reason not to believe that a similar result would occur in the United States.

The "War on Drugs" is yet another example of fear trumping logic and experience. Bring the troops home.

[Gravity 78]

12:05 PM on 07/04/2011

Here in Idaho having 28 grams of Marijuana is a class c felony with up to 5 years in prison. The main sponsor for the change in the law was ICC operator, and major campaign donor to Governor Otter. If anyone was to tale a look at the drug laws in the U.S, they would find that private prison operators have worked to have state laws changed. Many of these changes include life in prison.

[frank day]

12:36 PM on 07/04/2011

Do you have a link to that story??

Who was the operator?

[TheNative]

12:52 PM on 07/04/2011

The same argument in regards to private prisons has been made in Arizona but in reference to illegal aliens. The motive to make a profit from detaining the illegals trumps any decent and humane attempt to pass laws to correct the problem. It's all about the money.

[manumoka]

11:50 AM on 07/04/2011

"a response based largely on whether the individual is an occasional drug user or an addict."

Wow! what a concept!

[westcoastsc]

11:38 AM on 07/04/2011

Once you call it a war, you have lost.

[vonhinger]

11:13 AM on 07/04/2011

were do u get the money to support this program. this is silly to think that any of our government would want to reduce the amount of people using drugs. Our government is NOT a business its a money pit.

[jf1936]

11:13 AM on 07/04/2011

oh, so you mean the way Ron Paul has been telling us to handle it for the last 30 years that Obama made fun of?

So Ron Paul was right... again... boy this game is getting tiresome.

[manumoka]

11:52 AM on 07/04/2011

Yeh, the broken clock is right twice a day: on (1) foreign wars and (2) the drug war.

[frank day]

12:38 PM on 07/04/2011

Sort of right. He has weird thoughts on each subject.

Very wrong on most everything else.

The Ayn Rand Dominionist John Birch Fundamentalists are

ruining our nation.

[jf1936]

02:41 PM on 07/04/2011

and the housing bubble... and 9/11... and the federal reserve... and the patriot act... and gay marriage...and the bank bailouts... and the stimulus package... and social security's inevitable insolvency... and a hundred other things that I won't take the time to list.

[Javalation]

10:48 AM on 07/04/2011

But the Portuguese objective is different from ours. They want to reduce the number of addicts, and we want to generate profits for a variety of groups while providing a platform for politicians to pontificate from. Besides, Americans don't care about what happens anywhere else, even when what they do works better than what we do here, cause we're exceptional.

[gx5000]

11:49 AM on 07/04/2011

It's also out of context data.
This is the USA, not Portugal, what works there is ALSO a reflection of their social contract with their citizens, their economy and culture.

[KarmaKamedian]

12:17 PM on 07/04/2011

So you are saying their culture is superior to ours?

[atexasdem]

10:47 AM on 07/04/2011

We have spent thirty years and billions of dollars in the war on drugs. We have destabilized our southern neighbor with trillions of drug dollars which the narcos have used to buy American weapons to kill tens of thousands of innocent victims. This doesn't include other south and central American countries where billionaire drug lords have corrupted governments and become in fact shadow governments in themselves. Yet we still continue the same failed strategy in our "war on drugs." The ultimate insanity is repeatedly doing the same things while expecting different results. Street prices for drugs today are generally lower than thirty years ago. Can you think of anything else that is cheaper today than thirty years ago? Why do we insist on maintaining this same insane coarse? Portugal's answer may or may not work for America. Other countries have used other strategies some of which worked better than others.
The real question has to be when are we going to quit doing the same things while expecting different results? It's pretty obvious our current strategy isn't working.

[MISTERUNCONVENTIONAL]

10:44 AM on 07/04/2011

How do you win a drug war?

The same way you win a war in Afghanistan.

Never start one.

[Aries Warrior]

11:51 AM on 07/04/2011

the poppy fields of Afghanistan are a direct link to the drug...ah...war here in the US.

[firewmn]

10:36 AM on 07/04/2011

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║╚╝║══║═║═║╚╝║ ☆¸.•°*”˜˜”*°•.¸☆
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╚╝╚╩╝╚╩╝╚╝═╚╝ ♥￥☆★☆★☆￥♥ ★☆
HAVE A HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA




(even in your Nanny state)

[Oceras]

11:56 AM on 07/04/2011

Just had to throw in that last bit, huh?

[frank day]

12:40 PM on 07/04/2011

Pretty Cool !

except for the foolishness at the end.